LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. (KMOX) – Nearly three months after their son drowned at the Lake of the Ozarks while handcuffed and in Missouri Water Patrol custody, an Iowa family still is waiting for the official report on how it happened.

“I’ve been told, repeatedly, that ‘It’ll be another week, It’ll be another week.'”

Family attorney Matt Boles says that’s what the patrol has been telling him since a few weeks after Brandon Ellingson’s May 31st drowning.

“The family is really sitting in the dark wondering, what is the real explanation as to why their son is dead?” Boles says.

Initially, the patrol reported the 20-year-old Arizona State University dean’s list student either “fell or jumped” off a water patrol boat after being arrested for boating while intoxicated.

Boles says there’s evidence Ellingson wasn’t drunk, and there are questions about the trooper’s training and handling of the arrest.

“Brandon’s life jacket was put on after his hands were handcuffed behind his back,” he says.

Boles doesn’t suspect a cover-up, but, “I think that they’re doing their job. I’m just a little concerned at the time that it’s taking to get an evaluation and an analysis of all the information,” he says.

Brian Kelly is a Florissant native who returned to KMOX in 2009 after a seven year absence. He first worked for KMOX News from 1997 through 2002.
Brian is a general assignment reporter, who enjoys providing live reports from the scene of breaking...